Fouts teardown on track

Demolition of the south end zone grandstands of Fouts Field at the University of North Texas continues Tuesday, leaving a twisted pile of aluminum next to the track, Wednesday, July 17, 2013, in Denton, TX.

The
partial demolition of Fouts Field at the University of North Texas continued
this week, as crews began examining the possibility of saving the historic
stone panels on the east concourse.

The
25-square-foot panels — some depicting athletes and some eagles — are one of
the signature details of the venue and are about 4 inches thick. Crews will cut
around the panels and pull them from the rest of the concourse, said Don Lynch,
director of the UNT system facilities administration.

“Even if
the first one is unsuccessful, it could teach them enough that they could take
down the others, so the first one doesn’t necessarily need to be perfect,”
Lynch said. “Once we know about the stone panels — if they’re able to be
salvaged — it will go very quickly because that’s really the last delicate
thing they have to be careful around.”

After the
panels are removed, or it is determined they cannot be removed without damage,
the crews will begin to demolish the concrete east concourse student section, a
process Lynch estimates will take place within the next few weeks. The east
concourse is estimated to begin coming down next week, Lynch said.

Crews
finished taking down the north-end bleachers this week, a project that began
July 2. To remove the bleachers, a crane-type machine grabs on to the rows,
pulls them down, and then crews sort the different metals that can be used as
scrap. Currently, crews are still sorting the portions of metal, Lynch said.

The
process will be repeated for the south-side bleachers once the east concourse
is removed, the last major portion of the project, Lynch said.

The metal
bleachers were added to the original 20,000-seat venue to expand its capacity
to 30,000 before the 1994 season. The expansion helped facilitate UNT’s return
to playing at the Division I level in 1995 after spending 12 years as a member
of the Division I-AA Southland Conference

The Fouts
Field demolition project remains on schedule for an Aug. 26 completion, which
will be just in time for student athletes to return to campus, said Eric
Capper, senior associate director of athletics.

“It
hasn’t affected us at all to this point,” he said. “I think it was well planned
in advance to have the project take place when it would be least impactful to
the athletics schedule, which is good and is a credit to those that were
involved in the planning.”

UNT’s
football program moved out of Fouts Field and began playing in Apogee Stadium
in 2011.

The
school’s track program will continue to use the venue until a new track
facility is built near the Mean Green Athletic Center. A new track stadium is
in UNT’s master plan.

Both UNT
athletic director Rick Villarreal and head track coach Carl Sheffield said this
spring they expect to have a new track venue in place within five years.

Sheffield
is hoping that he can help UNT secure donations for a new track that would move
up the time line for its construction.

The
removal of the metal stands is just another step in the slow retirement of
Fouts Field, a historic venue that served as the home of UNT’s football program
from 1952 to 2010. Some of the greatest moments and eras in UNT history took
place at the stadium during that span.

Legendary
head coach Hayden Fry coached at UNT during the Fouts Field era and led the
Mean Green to 10-1 and 9-2 finishes in the final two years of his tenure at the
school from 1973-78.

“Fouts
Field will always have a special place in my heart,” Fry said in 2010 before
UNT’s final game at the venue. “We filled [the stands] back then when I was
there, even though it wasn’t very big.”

A few
years earlier, Joe Greene established himself as one of the greatest players in
college football history. Greene played for UNT from 1966 until 1968, when he
was a consensus first-team All-American.

Greene
helped lead UNT to the Missouri Valley Conference title in 1966 and 1967, when
the Mean Green won all 11 games it played at Fouts Field.

“When I
came in back in 1965 as a freshman, Fouts Field was only 14 or 15 years old,”
Greene said. “It wasn’t too bad.”

UNT had
begun to lay the groundwork to replace Fouts Field during what is considered to
be the last great era in the venue’s history in the early 2000s, when the Mean
Green won four straight Sun Belt Conference titles from 2001-04.

Fouts
Field had begun to deteriorate at that point and is now in the midst of a slow
retirement, one that has brought back memories for several UNT players,
including Ken Bahnsen.

The
former UNT running back and coach scored the first touchdown at Fouts in 1952
and scored a ceremonial final touchdown the night the Mean Green faced Kansas
State in the final football game at the venue in 2010.

“We
played on an old field by the music building my first year before moving to
Fouts Field,” Bahnsen said. “We thought we had moved to Notre Dame.”

UNT
continued the process of moving out this week, when work crews tried to ensure
the school will have the stone panels facades to remember the history of Fouts
Field, and the players and coaches who were a part of it.

JENNA DUNCAN can be reached at 940-566-6889
and via Twitter at @JennaFDuncan.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870 or
via Twitter at @brettvito.

Comments

DentonRC.com is now using Facebook Comments. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then add your comment below. Your comment is subject to Facebook's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service on data use. If you don't want your comment to appear on Facebook, uncheck the 'Post to Facebook' box. To find out more, read the FAQ .